Scythe book review

Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Series: Arc of a Scythe #1
on November 22, 2016
Pages: 435
Goodreads

Thou shalt kill.
A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.
Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Scythe has been talked about for ages and it seems to be making a resurgence recently so I thought it was better that I pick it up sooner rather than later and I’m glad that I did. I really loved this story but it didn’t blow me away! I thought there was a lot of potential for the characters but I had issues with the relationships and some of the plot points. I rated this one highly purely because of the enjoyment factor, I loved reading it and I can’t wait to jump into the sequel!

I really loved the dynamics between Citra and Rowan, I think they were the perfect two to become a Scythe, both different enough to keep me interesting! I do think that some of the relationships could have done with a little more development and that sort of detracted from the story a little more than I would have liked. I did really love Scythe Faraday and Scythe Curie, I thought the dynamic between the two was really well done and I loved seeing the contrast between them and the new age scythes. Watching the two groups interact showed an interesting thought process and also added something completely brilliant to the story. The characters really went from strength to strength in this story.

For me, the best bit of Scythe would have to be seeing the world in the future and the different issues that have arisen from it becoming the perfect place to live. It really made me question what life would be like if there was nothing to strive for and if you lived in fear of the Scythes and what they are capable of. I loved seeing the different dynamics and the way each Scythe conducted their gleanings, I wish that there had been more about this within the story because I think this would have topped it over the edge in enjoyment for me!

I actually think the worst bit of Scythe would be the relationships that form, the whole thing kind of detracts from the actual story and the controversies that make it great. I kind of thought that the strength of this book would be the fact that there wasn’t any romance and it was purely a kind of survival, that would have really impressed me. But there were a lot of tropes that made the story more predictable than I would have liked. Plus we have to talk about the horrific and blatant rule-breaking that no one actually looked at, it just made the whole story seem way more dramatic and unrealistic!

I really would recommend Scythe, although it had some small issues that I would have loved to see changed, I loved reading it. It was such a wonderfully told story with really great characters and a unique look at what the world would be like if everything was perfect. I am actually really looking forward to reading the sequel and how the story will end up working out!